


Hard plain language

by ivyfernleaflet



Category: Batman (Comics)
Genre: Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Autistic Bruce Wayne, Autistic Talia al Ghul, Character Study, Gen, No Romance, Non-Explicit Sex, Trans Female Character, Trans Male Character, Unplanned Pregnancy, seriously can't state how much this is more a character study than anything else
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-22
Updated: 2020-05-22
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:34:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24322864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivyfernleaflet/pseuds/ivyfernleaflet
Summary: Bruce doesn't keep track of unimportant things about his body.  Like his menstrual cycle, for example.  But lucky for him, Talia's got that covered.  Not so lucky for him: the rest of the situation at hand here.
Relationships: Ra's al Ghul/Bruce Wayne, Talia al Ghul & Bruce Wayne, Talia al Ghul/Bruce Wayne
Comments: 7
Kudos: 47





	Hard plain language

**Author's Note:**

> ** disclaimer: this creator has no problem with exploring problematic, objectionable, and obscene content in fiction and ships, and has done so in the past in fanworks (and will likely do so in the future, as well). if interacting with an individual who writes the aforementioned will inspire vehement response, then here is your warning. if my nsfw and/or obscene works discredit my other works in your eyes, please feel free to disengage as needed. **
> 
> **you guys, probably:** it would be creepy if talia kept track of bruce's period.  
>  **me:** I mean, yes, but it's also something I really feel she would do.
> 
> warning that I didn't write talia as the worst human being ever because idk. she's interesting to me. the similarities between her and bruce + their weird-ass relationship are interesting to me. and I grew up on btas and the 1960s tv series, so I just don't write characters as mean or angry or unforgivable as some of the comics canon does, even as I learn more about characters and their backstories. what even is true canon of comics, by this point, right? whatevs, it's chill.
> 
> anyway, **VERY IMPORTANT** : it *is* mentioned that ra's and bruce are having sexual relations, and while it really isn't explored in depth, there's a sense of apathy from bruce about the situation. that can possibly imply / be interpreted as a lack of consent. there is no apparent trauma or negative feelings of trauma / stress / etc expressed by bruce re: the situation (literally, he just states it as A Thing That Is and That Happens), but since there's an implied sense of duty to it, it can possibly have a bad feel to it by some interpretations. so I just want to warn for it just in case that's triggering for anyone!
> 
> anyway, comments are appreciated but not required -- and I find short comments with emojis (and so on) just as valid as long and analytical comments, if that helps with potential pressure / anxiety.

Bruce didn't keep track of things about his body if they weren't absolutely necessary. He put in the correct nutrition as needed, weighed and measured the appropriate things to track his strength and muscle gain to adjust training, made sure he wasn't outright dying, and that was it. Not enough sleep? Working through minor injury and illness? Pushing through pain? That was normal. Caring about unimportant details that didn't impede his ability to get work done wasn't something he did. Especially not here, as he was training with the League of Assassins. And among those unimportant details was definitely menstruation. Bruce had _always_ been bad about dealing that particular bodily function, to be honest.

So, in the end, it was Talia who noticed. Ra's' daughter, who was strangely severe and strangely affectionate towards Bruce -- and just plain strange, but in ways Bruce could relate to. She liked him, and Bruce liked her back. Enough that he paid little mind to her way of calling him 'Beloved'. It was easy enough _to_ ignore, when he thoroughly enjoyed her bluntness and their shared sparring matches. He liked the clever ways she spoke and fought, and it was enough to endear her to Bruce in a simple and easy way. A way easy to parse and to cherish for what it was -- for who she was, just as she was.

The other trainees whispered behind his back that Ra's would inevitably matchmake them. That Bruce, star pupil, _Ra's'_ favorite already, was a shoo-in to help lead this murder clan in their attempts at world domination. Which was more than unlikely, Bruce thought privately and shared with no one. He needed their training because they were the best of the best, but he had no plans on staying with, never mind leading, the League of Assassins.

It was also unlikely that Bruce and Talia would be made into a match, because Ra's didn't share. And a man like Ra's -- who cooed, silver tongued, _Detective,_ at Bruce, who laid Bruce down in his overly pillowed bed adorned with silk sheets and gold threaded duvets and ate Bruce out, worked Bruce wet and open with a talented tongue and deft fingers until Ra's could easily slide in and fuck him, could come messily against Bruce's folds and then fuck him again, cockhead to clit, to bring Bruce off -- was not a man who married Bruce off to his own daughter.

But Talia was a genuinely interesting person. In a different life and with a different upbringing for them both, Bruce wondered if he would have liked her in a way that would have him actively pursuing her. In the current reality, however, she was waking him up in the dead of night with a finger before her lips, and gesturing for him to follow her in silence.

Talia was the favored daughter of his and the other trainees' master. She was doted on by Ra's and held as an example of what they all should aspire for. So, even if Bruce had harbored no attachment to her, it would always hold true that if Talia told them to do something, they were better off doing it. And then, for him, there _was_ the fact that at times, it felt as though he and her could perhaps be kindred spirits. He and Talia were their own approximation of friends, with their abnormal commune circumstances, creed of literal assassins and eco-terrorists in the making, and shaky estimations of appropriate socialization behaviors. Bruce didn't dislike Talia in the least, so it was easy to do as she told him.

He followed her out the training quarters, through the compound and down the silent halls to foreign corridors he'd never been allowed to venture down before. They cut through some servants' quarters he didn't recognize, and ended up outside in the desert night, before ducking into some small, cleared out storage building. It was tiny and retired, housing only older models of the solar charged lanterns that they used at night. He'd never been here either, and he suspected that the makeshift bedding currently laid out on the floor wasn't normally in here, nor the woman waiting in the shadowed corner for their arrival.

Talia gestured for him to sit on bedding, explaining nothing to him before going to talk in quiet undertones to the woman. She was dressed as a servant, yet held herself with too much grace and self-assuredness to fit the part. Bruce hovered by the bedding but didn't sit, watching the long conversation between Talia and the woman instead, unable to pick up on their words as they used a language his ears didn't quite recognize. It was a dialect maybe -- it sounded almost familiar enough at times for him to maybe catch general meanings now and then, only for true understanding to escape him.

Finally, Talia turned to Bruce, her face grim. She motioned for him to sit again, but Bruce shook his head silently. He would need some kind of explanation from her at some point. Sitting was a more vulnerable position than he was willing to take, when he was completely in the dark.

Talia didn't look surprised. "Can I ask you to trust me?" She asked, no manipulation or hidden meanings, just as straightforward a question as it could be.

That was surprising. Bruce blinked, taken aback by the question, more for how it was asked than anything. Then he frowned slightly in confusion at the question itself. "For what?" 

Her answer was even more surprising. "For medical tests," she said flatly, eyes flickering with something -- was it Talia's version of concern? Bruce wasn't sure. "Let this woman look at you, please?"

He liked Talia, and he believed Talia didn't have vicious motives behind whatever she was orchestrating right now, but he didn't think trust was an easy thing to ask for. He mulled it over, trying to find a response that could suit them both. "I will behave and cooperate," he eventually promised. "Unless I think something's suspicious."

Talia's general severity eased up; she was clearly relieved. "Perfect."

The woman -- was she a nurse or a doctor, Bruce wondered; was she from the compound or instead imported from some nearby town or faraway mecca of a city -- spoke now, in that dialect Bruce couldn't quite discern. Through Talia's interpreting they managed: the stranger had Bruce strip naked, then inspected and poked and prodded him while asking him questions of his well-being. She had Talia bring the sun-powered lanterns in close and she spoke in whispers -- clearly this inspection was secretive at Talia's behest, which ruled out Ra's having anything to do with it. The woman inspected thoroughly between Bruce's legs, and finally had him urinate in a sanitized container.

It was suspicious. It was foreboding. "Do you think I'm sick?" Bruce asked Talia as the woman packed up, pausing only to intentionally pour some of his urine into a small pot of dirt in the corner of the room. Bruce wondered if it was for ritualistic purposes.

"Beloved," Talia said haughtily, just a hint annoyed though Bruce couldn't place why she would be. "Be ready in a week."

"For what?" It was a repeated question, but worth trying to ask when he'd gotten an answer before. Her words sounded like they warned of middle of the night excursions, when trainees were abducted and transplanted into freezing mountain ranges to the north or uninhabited jungles to the southeast and told to find their way home or die trying. Usually, those happened abruptly, intentionally a surprise. Was she trying to help him, trying to cheat for him? That didn't sound right, though -- they both felt very strongly about earning through merit and skill.

She clearly had no intention of showing her hand. "Be ready and speak to no one of this night," she insisted cryptically, then led him back to bed in silence. He accepted that he didn't understand, and merely did as he was told: prepared his meager belongings, kept his silence, and pondered over the strange incident for the next few days.

As promised, a week later, Talia showed up in the dead of night again, this time with a bag over her shoulder, though it was well hidden under her traveling cloak. Bruce, who had been living the minimal lifestyle of a trainee, had his day clothes and shoes on, full of apprehension but ready to go. He also had a knife on him, the one Alfred had commissioned for Bruce as a final birthday gift before his departure for rumored Middle Eastern eco-conscientious murder cults. Bruce shoved down the thought of Alfred, and how much making up he was going to have to do once he returned home. Instead, he focused on Talia, who without a word led the way. And without a word, Bruce followed.

It wasn't until Talia had led him through countless secret entrances and tunnels, then above ground to a remote watering hole with two suspiciously saddled horses waiting for them that Bruce began to fear that what they were doing was even bigger, even more traitorous than he had initially guessed. He was going to start pressing her, if she wouldn't volunteer the information, but he held his silence as they rode their horses toward some unknown border. 

"There is a rendezvous point with vehicles," Talia explained, as they put unquestionable distance between themselves and the League -- but it was not enough distance, it would never be enough distance to fully escape them.

"Talia, talk," Bruce said. It was gruff but not unkind. He was willing to go along, he felt no danger from her, but there was danger in him walking blindly into whatever situation was going on here. "Tell me what's going on."

Talia huffed out a laugh, shaking her head in disbelief. Then, she pulled out a fistful of tiny sprouts from her cloak's pocket, showing him with a strange grimness as they rode alongside one another.

Bruce squinted, uncertain of the meaning of these plants. "For the horses?"

Talia shook her head imperceptibly, and gave him a look tinged with exasperation. "Beloved, no. From _you_."

Bruce still didn't understand. "What does that mean?" An illness? Maybe one manufactured by the League and then tested on trainees? Was this what Talia was doing, having him secretly medically checked and sneaking him out for a treatment no one else would receive?

"Beloved," Talia said softly, secretively, habits hard to break even this far from the treacherously unforgiving halls of the compound. Her exasperation had faded into affection for a brief moment. "When was your last monthly bleeding?"

Bruce, who could remember seven figure numbers after a glance, whose ability to read and instantly recite had been an easy party trick to smooth out social interactions since he was three years old, who had been training to sharpen his strange but still considered brilliant mind all these years, didn't know the answer to that question. He never kept track, his body a fallible, shifting thing. "I... don't know."

"I do," Talia said firmly, seriousness back in place. Her long hair was whipping behind her, cloak hood trailing behind her, determination in every line of her body. "And it's been too long, when Father has... taken to you as he has." What a tidied up euphemism for Ra's having a tendency to fuck him when the time could be made for it.

Talia huffed slightly, opening her clenched fist to let the sprouts blow away in the wind, left to die in the harsh sunrise that would inevitably come. Reaching up, she grabbed her hood and pulled it over her head before returning both hands to the horse's reins. "The doctor who met you checked and tested, but her results needed a lab and time. So she left behind a separate test for me to watch. A sign to signal we should risk meeting her again."

Bruce thought of the sprouts. Remembered the questionable ritual of leaving his urine in a pot of soil. Remembered old anthropology studies and -- realized, before Talia's next words, what it was she was implying, no, what she was outright saying -- 

"Those seeds sprouted because of you," she said, voice carefully blank now, face harder to see with the hood pulled up. "The doctor will meet us in the next town to confirm, but you are likely with child."

He'd figured it out already, and yet the words themselves still caused Bruce's heart to feel as though it stopped. The only sounds in the chilly desert night were the horses' snorting breaths as they galloped onward. The stars and moon hung in the sky, picturesque, surreal, as Bruce flipped through thoughts and possibilities and reviewed that strange night a week ago with new appreciation, with clear understanding.

"...Ra's..." Couldn't know about this. Obviously currently didn't, but absolutely couldn't find out. If he came to know, then Bruce would never get to leave. Bruce's child would be a contender as an heir and would have a ruined life, trained and taught from birth the League's ways. And if it were born a boy, then all of this would be doubly true -- 

Now, Bruce stared at Talia, wary. "Your inheritance is threatened." She had other siblings, but was the favored child, as far as Bruce could tell. So was she trying to kill him, or simply getting rid of the baby before Ra's discovered its existence? Because clearly Talia was doing all this, trying her best to keep it so Ra's didn't know... but for what reason? It could be for reasons helpful to Bruce, or for reasons only helpful to herself. Bruce needed to know how far her affections for him really extended.

Talia merely laughed, a sharp yet nervous thing. It didn't quiver, but it didn't strike, sharp and quick and sure, like her usual laughs. "By daybreak, the rumors will be that I've spirited you away for marriage. You didn't think I could hide our previous late-night excursion, did you? The servants and trainees think I bedded you that night. I encouraged the rumor."

What a surprise, that those lot of trainees and servants could manage to gossip quietly for once. But Bruce frowned, as the pieces fell into place in his mind. So Talia was trying to help him -- she'd put herself in the middle of the situation _with_ him, with that rumor. And Ra's would know of the child's existence eventually, if Bruce went on to have the baby. And if Bruce had a baby, then Ra's would wonder of its lineage, as a possible contender in the equation. So...

"You're trying to pass it off as your own." Bruce didn't say it like a question, because there was no question here. That was obviously exactly what Talia was trying to do. It was a desperate play, but it was something. It was more than she owed him. It was overtly _kind_ of her, to help him like this.

Talia looked away from him, off into the distance of the sandy dunes. It was the most discomfort she'd openly shown him in all their time of knowing each other. That meant something. "We'll have to be seen in town having such relations in public. The rumors will reach my father."

Ah, that explained her discomfort. Bruce hummed quietly, barely audible over the horses' snorting, as he inspected the deeper meanings of her words. Because the thing was... if they were fleeing -- the continent presumably -- then it would have to be more than just a single sighting to be convincing. It would be on hotel verandas and in whatever cars they rented out, and it would be in the quiet halls or corners of European hostels and of boat cruises, all until a return to the North American east coast would relieve any need for performative misleads on conception. They were going to be seen -- in half shadows, in fits of passion so desperate they couldn't wait until certain privacy -- having sex so often that there would be no doubt Talia had been the one to impregnate Bruce. And there was _still_ going to be a need for faked medical records and parentage tests to make it really convincing... but Bruce could handle that state-side. That would be the easy part.

So there was no question here: Talia _was_ going to lose her inheritance. She was risking her life, openly flaunting a fake relationship with the prize jewel her father had planned to put in his League's crown. And, as their eyes met, Talia returning Bruce's gaze now, a silent understanding passed between them.

"What happens if it turns out I'm not pregnant?" Bruce questioned lightly, for the sake of possible hypotheticals. The thought of saying out loud, _I'm pregnant_ was terrifying, but putting a 'not' in-between it made it easy to say. "Other than, I assume, holding off on the sex until it's confirmed." Dry humor, perhaps. An obvious requisite, of course: no use in her accidentally getting him pregnant. But there was enough probable certainty here to assume that wouldn't be the case.

Talia gave a sharp, prim snort. "Then we return. We both are punished but not excommunication or killed, and life moves on."

But neither of them believed in hoping for best case scenarios as opposed to preparing for the worst. And _that_ , by far, would be the best case.

"We're going to Gotham, if I'm... if the tests are positive." Bruce tried not to hesitate, but it was difficult to say the words in affirmative, as unalterable reality, without pause. This had never been the plan, but he would adapt. "Talia, you're coming with me, and I won't live anywhere but Gotham." It was all he could offer her, when she was risking her life for his like this.

"Of course," Talia said simply, as if she had already guessed as much. And she probably had. Bruce had never been duplicitous, or even subtle, about where his heart truly belonged.

However this would work, whatever they ended up doing -- Talia had saved his life. Or, she at least was trying to. There would be assassins after them, starting from daybreak and lasting until they reached Europe, perhaps even North America, when Ra's would finally leave them alone and resort to merely observing and planning. Less overt attempts on their lives would be made, as there was safety in Ra's' unwillingness to draw international ire and attention over personal vendettas that served little other purpose. If Bruce and Talia survived, then Talia would have saved him from becoming chained to a league whose values he hated. And he would owe everything to her for that.

As for this baby, if he indeed was pregnant and then if it survived -- who knew what the two of them would do to deal with it, that tiny new person accidentally brought into this world. Would they raise it together? Would they live together at the Manor, Bruce and Talia and the baby, with Alfred keeping watch over all of them? (and oh god, Alfred -- Bruce had so much to make up for with him, and showing up pregnant and with Talia in tow were several steps in the wrong direction for that -- ) What did Talia and Bruce, a unit together, mean anyway, off in Gotham City? What did that look like and how would they function?

Bruce sucked in a deep lungful of chilled night air, and grounded himself by focusing on the feeling of his thighs clenched against the heaving sides of his galloping horse. They would figure it out in due time. But Talia had saved his life, and that would always, _always_ mean something.

**Author's Note:**

> not pictured: two autistic trans people on a whirlwind three continent tour, strategically semi-publicly fucking and evading hits on their lives contracted by their father / baby daddy. hire me dc, I have great ideas for limited series.
> 
> this idea came from a stupid joke-thought I had that got too real too fast (i.e. lmao what if ra's wasn't actually damian's grandfather but father. imagine *that* talk: "grandfather... is my father? my second father?" tim, unhelpfully and being petty in the background, "technically third father, since dick is practically your dad too -- " "be quiet, drake!").
> 
> anyway, in the full version, they get to gotham, live in the manor together, selina -- bruce's suspect pal from youth (she was casing him for a job when they were teens, various encounters and events happened, and now they're friends) -- meets talia and then *that* version of batcat develops (bc talia is an honorary bat now, and talia/selina for the win). somewhere in there, damian is born and raised, batman and typical batclan happens, yadda yadda yadda.
> 
> oh, I forgot to mention -- an ancient egypt pregnancy test = urinate on wheat and barley seeds and if they sprout in a week then congrats! there's a probable bun in the oven. it had a 70-85% chance of being correct, says harvard [dot] edu, so that's a pretty good success rate, I'd say.
> 
> \-- 🍃


End file.
